There may be a good thread on this somewhere but I can't seem to find it. Neither of my front seats warm up at all after the button is pressed. The button lights up just fine but the seats never heat up. What can I do to fix this? bad wiring? bad heating element? Short somewhere? Thanks in advance.

 

Assuming you have voltage at the connector under the seat, almost certainly broken heating elements. In these older cars it is usually a wire grid, and the wire eventually fatigues and breaks.


For my P38 Range Rover, I replaced the factory elements with aftermarket generic ones for much, much cheaper (~$50/side). I just connected the aftermarket wiring to the factory wiring, and it works fine using the factory switch. Also, the aftermarket heating elements are MUCH more reliable, you can actually cut holes in them and they still work. They use a grid setup with redundancy built in.


My just purchased '95 Discovery doesn't have seat heat, but I will be adding it the same way. Unheated leather seats in Maine are a non-starter for me!


-Kevin

 

Thanks for the help. Where would be the best place to remove the broken heating element?

 

Depending on how it is made, you may not have to. On the P38, the factory heating element part of the seat cushion IIRC. I just stuck the new ones over them and put the covers back on. It's just a sheet of cloth, more-or-less, so it made no difference as to how the cushion went on. As I mentioned, you can cut holes in the new element as needed for tensioning the covers. You can cut them to length as well.


-Kevin

 

Hey Kevin,

Where'd you order the generic heating pads? I gotta get this done as winter is coming.

 

I've used both of these Dorman heaters in a few RRC over 2 years ago and they work well. Dorman #628-040 and #641-207. https://www.summitracing.com/parts/rnb-628-040
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/r...-207/overview/

Video is lame, but you will get the install idea>>>

 

The link to the one I used in the P38 is dead, but if you go to Amazon.com and search for Heated Seat Kit, there are a ton of them. The one that comes up for $69.99 to do two seats looks exactly like the kit I got - and I paid $69.99 for ONE seat! Watercarbon is the brand.

I may just order that and do both seats in my Disco, since it looks so much easier to take the seat apart than the P38. That thing was a PITA!

 

This can all be installed with the seats in the truck I hope. I have zero motivation to remove the whole thing. Also, did you guys use the factory switch?

 

I very much doubt it. I've always removed the seat. On my P38, I used the factory wiring to provide current to the kit wiring, and mounted the kit High/Low switch in the side of the seat. I generally leave it on High, and just turn it on and off with the factory button. I don't have factory switches for my Disco, so I will probably just mount the kit switch where the factory switch would go.

I plan to do the Disco next weekend when home again in FL on vacation at the moment!